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Happy Holidays! The Concept: Synergy office will be closed from Friday, December 22 until Jan. 2, 2018. Streaming and downloading services are fully available as well as the Pay-per-Views that can be purchased from the shopping cart. Physical products ordered after December 18 will be shipped when we reopen Jan. 2.

In our blog, you’ll find information about metaphysics and spirituality from Lazaris and Jach, excerpts from Lazaris recordings and interviews, and travelogues from Jach’s adventures around the world.Blog Index

An excerpt from the personal growth recording, "Inner Peace," by Lazaris:

Today we want to work with some of the "bugaboo" emotions that you have, bugaboo emotions that stand in the way of your having inner peace. We want to
work with anxiety, with worry, and with confusion and doubt.

Admittedly, these are not the only things that are standing in the way of inner peace. The blockbuster emotions you are familiar with already -- unexpressed
anger and hurt, self-pity and fear. We will be talking about those feelings as well, but much more briefly. We want to focus on these bugaboos because
most of you by now have means to handle those blockbusters of anger, hurt, self-pity, etc. It is the smaller emotions, these more subtle emotions,
that still stand in the way of your acquiring that sense of inner peace that you are seeking.

What is rather interesting about these emotions, and common to all of them, is that you all feel them from time to time, but you don't really know what
they are. You can talk about them, but can you really define what it is to be anxious about something? And how is that different from being in doubt,
confusion, or worry? You can look in a dictionary and find a string of words that you call a definition. But do you really know what those feelings
are?

These emotions usually get what we call the "universal metaphysical definition." Anxiety as defined by the universal metaphysical definition is: "Well,
you know, anxiety? Well, that's, you know, well, you know, it's when you feel anxious, you know?" The other terms, unfortunately, fall by the same
sort of definition.

Without an understanding of what these bugaboo emotions are, an understanding of their subtlety -- without being able to distinguish one from another --
it's very difficult to recognize what's going on with you. It makes it even more difficult to acknowledge what's happening with you, foolhardy even
to think of forgiving yourself, and totally impossible to permanently change. At best, you can handle this or that anxiety or worry or confusion or
doubt. Usually it's a temporal feeling: The situation over which you have been feeling this emotion goes by. The feeling disappears and you think,
"Aha, I've handled my anxiety," only to find it coming up again. There's no security there, no sense that "I am on top of anxiety so that should it
arise tomorrow, I have something I can do. I can stop that feeling, and get back to the feelings I want to have." Therefore, though a particular situation
that produces one of these bugaboos may come and go, you are constantly plagued with it.

Being so plagued, you end up striving for, reaching for, even grasping for that inner peace only to find it slipping through your fingers once again. You
would think perhaps you can get through life without having inner peace. There's no perhaps about it. Of course you can. You've done it hundred and
hundreds of times already. So it's not an issue of whether you can survive or not, for clearly you can. But it is an issue of the quality of that survival,
and the quality of your spiritual development whereby it becomes important to develop that inner peace.

The Benefits of Inner Peace

There are very obvious reasons to develop that peace. First of all, it is more fun to live your life free from these bugaboos, in a state of inner peace.
It is much easier to learn to have fun. The road is much smoother toward learning to consciously create your success if you can do so from a state
of inner peace. Further, the purposes for being physical in this lifetime -- your focuses, the things you came to do and wanted to learn -- can be
learned so much more effectively if they are experienced and explored in a state of inner peace. Finally, it feels very good.

There are also less obvious, but no less important reasons, to strive for and achieve inner peace. The first of these reasons is that your outer world
is a reflection, a symbolic reflection, of your inner reality. Is it any real surprise that at a time of opportunity with tremendous expansion, a time
when you are about to take off and really get that sense of soaring and being in motion -- that the terrorism of your own martyrhood should hijack
you? You see, that outer world is a symbolic expression of the inner reality. And as the inner reality acquires a sense of inner peace, so you do have
impact upon the outer peace.

Now, for one of you to establish inner peace may not bring about worldwide peace, but at least it is contributing. And those of you wanting so much to
make some sort of contribution, wanting to have some sort of impact upon your world, wanting to make some difference in the future, one of the most
valuable ways is through establishing inner peace. For as that world reflects upon you, so you reflect upon it. There's not much notoriety in it, but
we would suggest that there is a tremendous amount of impact that each of you individually and as a group can have on an outer world that sometimes
scares you so much.

A second reason to develop inner peace ... There is a song that has a marvelous line: "Love is like a flower, and you its only seed." That's a marvelous
concept to consider. We have talked of you as sparks and seeds of spirituality. Indeed, that which fuels that spark and germinates that seed is inner
peace. To be that spark that you so much want to be -- to be that seed of spirituality -- inner peace is a vital part of that quest.

Thirdly, it is an inspiration. Your material success can be a source of inspiration for others to be materially successful, but it is your feeling reality,
more than your material reality, that inspires spiritually. That is not to say that you should not have material success. Have all that you want, and
be as inspirational as you want for others to acquire similarly in that illusory physical plane. But being a spark, inspiring other people to the realization
of a spiritual awakening, comes through the reality that you feel. It is the real inspiration that comes from your inner peace that
can pique other people's curiosity enough to make them adventure into the realms of spirituality.

Fourthly, as you are approaching the end of the century, there are going to be a lot of people who are going to want to play upon your lack of inner peace,
play upon your fears and insecurities. Some will be without the metaphysical/spiritual community, and unfortunately, some will be within it. There
will be much more talk of doomsday, much more talk of devastation, to scare you. Therefore, it is important for you as an individual to establish a
resonance of inner peace so as to avoid the seduction of fear and to stand as a point to uplift the resonance that is going to be pulled down -- intentionally
by some, unfortunately. As you sense yourself as that beam of light, as that pillar, that spark, that seed, resonance will follow. You will either
hold, lift, or decline. Inner peace can be a very useful tool for what you want to accomplish.

It is not only important to handle the blockbusters and the bugaboo emotions that stand so arduously in the way, but also to replace it with something.
Replace what you have removed with four very important concepts: love, trust, expectancy and enthusiasm. To move in those directions, we first begin
with talking about the blockbusters ...

Handling the Blockbusters

Anger

We don't have to go about defining anger. You can pretty much tell when someone's angry or when you're angry, though you may deny it or try to suppress
it. But what to do about it?

It is very important that you release, or express and release, that anger. Clearly, if you do not, you stuff it inside in an arm or a leg and create arthritis,
or in an internal organ and create a cancer. You are going to stuff it somewhere within you and create a miserable reality in one capacity or another.
You really can't hide from it. But if you handle your anger properly, then you don't have to generate these other degenerative functions in your reality.

Now clearly, the expression of anger needs to be appropriate. Many can, in a way of malicious obedience, express anger in a totally inappropriate manner
to prove that they should never have done it in the first place: Going to work and telling the boss what you really think of the clothes he wears or
the way he treats his wife is not necessarily the most appropriate expression of anger. Verbal expression where another person is involved is the first
way, and it needs to be appropriate.

Secondly, you can talk to yourself in the mirror. As you sit down in front of a mirror, that person looking back at you is awfully patient. They stay right
there. They never go away or respond out of sorts. It's a very valuable way to vent a lot of emotion.

Then there's writing it out, and many of you can do that wonderfully in the journal keeping process. One of the most valuable ways to do it is The Hate
Letter, as we sometimes call it. It is a letter that you write to the person. You never mail it, of course. But you write it and express the anger
in as vehement a form as you possibly can, fluidly and quickly without paying attention to spelling, grammar or punctuation. Just get it out on that
piece of paper. Do not sign the letter, "Love, so-and-so." Sign it, however, and fold it up and hide it. Play through the symbology of the way you've
been hiding that feeling all along. The next day, pull it out and read it. Make it stronger: Cut out your editing and your diminishing. Make it strong.
Then tuck it away, once again hiding it. The next day pull it out. Your tendency is going to be to skim it. Read it word for word, delicately reading
it."Oh, this is getting boring." Exactly. As you are releasing it, it no longer has its charge. After you've read it this third time, then you safely
burn it page by page to release the energy.

Another way is meditating it out. Go into meditation and visualize the person or situation, expressing that anger in as volatile and powerful a way as
you can. Release it, and burn it out of your own system so that it doesn't lodge somewhere and create a deleterious reality.

The old angers from your childhood and adolescence have to be released also. One powerful method is to make your list of the top ten things that made you
angry in your life. Take each one of them, and write it out as though you were telling someone how it happened. Then go into a meditation going back
to that time. Refamiliarize yourself with that old environment. Where did you live? Where was your bedroom? What was the kitchen like? Then experience
the situation the way it happened, doing what you did then: stuffing your anger, biting your tongue, crying, running off, swearing to never come out
of your room again. Then, rather than stopping there, do an instant replay. This time, express what you wished you had. If you were so angry you could
have kicked somebody, then kick somebody in meditation. "I'm going to burn down the house!" Fine, burn it down in meditation. Will that do something
terrible? No, because your intention is to release the anger, not to produce it. Would that you were so confident of your positive programming as you
are of your negative programming! It's the intention. And the intention is not to cause negativity, but to release the negativity and hurt you have
carried all this time. Then write down a sentence or two as to how it felt. Then on another occasion (not the same day) do it a second time, and then
on another day, a third time. Over time you'll work your way through the top ten. All that remains to do is the current anger.

Hurt

Hurt is a little different, because hurt takes time to heal. Anger can be healed instantly: Someone makes you angry, you explode, you express it, they
responsibly receive your anger and handle it, and you're done. It's not there an hour later. But hurt is a wound, a cut, a tear in your self-esteem,
in your essence, and it takes time to heal.

Hurt is probably the worst thing you can do to somebody. If you make them angry, you can deal with that, depending on the degree and the intentionality.
But if you hurt somebody, then that's harder to deal with because it does take time. It's harder for them to heal it, and it's more responsibility
for you. It's the one emotion that has time. Therefore, the most devastating thing you can do to someone is to consciously hurt them. And to hurt them
physically is less detrimental than hurting them emotionally, psychically or spiritually. A physical hurt can mend. You have torn an illusion, made
a dark spot in a light. But an emotional hurt is real. A psychic hurt -- to lead them off their path -- is detrimental to their growth. You have slowed
someone down. To spiritually hurt somebody, to spiritually misguide them, is the biggest hurt of all. It's the most devastating emotion you have. Likewise,
once you move outside of time, hurt doesn't exist. It's the worst thing than can happen in your physical life because of the time factor, but once
you move outside of time then hurt diminishes. So it all balances.

How do you deal with it? As with anger, you start with the old hurts: your top 10 hurts. You write them out. And you do much the same thing you did with
anger: Play it through. Have an instant replay. Handle it the way you wish you could have. Then write a sentence or two about it. It is important to
write it, because it is the movement of musculature and the electromagnetic energy of the nerves in the process of actually writing it down that makes
it solid.

What about current hurts? Well, current hurts you handle a little differently. With the expression of hurt, it is important to let yourself feel it. Therefore,
if you are hurting, then it is important to give yourself some time. Set up some time: 20 minutes on whatever evening. Plan it ahead of time. The trick
here is that you don't think about other things: If you're feeling the hurt, feel the hurt, nothing else. As you focus in on it, it's going to get
tedious for you. You'll find it very difficult to feel just hurt for 20 minutes solid. But experience that hurt for the 20 minutes, and then stop.
Then go on and do whatever it is you planned to do that's going to be fun, that's going to cheer you up.

It may take two or three times, but do it in the same fashion, and you will release the hurt. It will be healed and you will be done. "But they have to
heal it!" Don't count on it. They may not even know they did it, and furthermore, they really can't heal it. They can be responsible for it, and handle
it responsibly, and make a commitment never to do it again. And that can feel wonderful, and is indeed an important part of it all. But you have to
heal your own hurt. If you don't, it will turn to scar tissue just like any wound that isn't properly handled. It can get infected, and it can do damage
to you.

Another thing about anger and hurt -- as they fit together - is to realize that in your society you have permission to feel one or the other. Women can
feel hurt, but they're not allowed to be angry. So, if a woman gets angry and kicks a trash can across the room, she's "being a real bitch." The way
a woman can express hurt is in tears. A woman can cry if she's happy, cry if she's sad, cry if she's angry, cry if she's hurt. A woman can basically
cry. Any other expression: not allowed. So many women have a problem in terms of having worked with hurt, because that's all you've been allowed to
work with. You may have a tremendous anger in there that you have hitherto let stay buried.

In reverse, men are allowed to be angry, but they're not allowed to be hurt. It's "weak" to be hurt. It is very uncomfortable both for men and women to
see a man say, "I'm really hurting," or "You hurt me." So a lot of men have called hurt anger and tried to release anger and wondered why it's not
working. You need to go back and deal with your hurt, even though society says it's "weak" for a man to be hurt.

Self-Pity

We've talked of victimhood, we've talked of martyrhood, we've talked of self-pity au naturel, and there are numerous ways to handle it. But it all boils
down to one concept: When you find yourself feeling self-pity, honestly ask yourself, "Who am I punishing?" And when you say, "Myself," don't accept
that answer. That is true, but that only feeds your self-pity. "Who am I punishing?" Myself. Okay. And who else?

There's always someone out there whom you are punishing. Own that, when you find yourself wailing or sighing in your various forms of self-pity. Ask yourself,"Who
and why? And do I really want to do that? I'm hurting somebody. I'm wounding them. I'm ripping their self-esteem." You may tell yourself that nobody
knows you're in that place. Highly unlikely. Very seldom do victims and martyrs keep their victimhood and martyrhood private.

There's always the thing where you say, "No, no. I'm a victim and a martyr, and I'm only hurting myself." Yet when you're asked who has ever hurt you,
you can list out this one and that one. What state of mind where they in? Victim and martyr. Well, if victims and martyrs only end up hurting themselves,
how did they end up hurting you? Victims hurt other people. Martyrs hurt other people. If you will really face yourself in the mirror, and really own
it, you will not be able to really justify continuing it. And that is the core of the various techniques we have talked of as to how to handle your
self-pity.

Fear

Fear is the base emotion absolutely. The base fear is fear of loss. From the very moment that you separated from your beingness, from God/Goddess/All That
Is, there was that fear: "What if I can't get back?" The very core fear, expressed biblically and mythologically in other forms, is the fear: "Can
I return to paradise?" That basic fear then produces all kinds of fears, which produce all kinds of emotions. A lot of your anger, hurt and self-pity
comes out of fear. But it is its own emotion as well, and there are ways to handle it. It is, perhaps, the blockbuster of blockbusters. And one of
the most powerful ways to handle your fear is to face it ...

Now indeed, you can back up from a fear to get perspective on it. We're not saying you have to jump right in to every one of them. But if you've identified
and have a fear of something, move toward it, metaphysically, meditatively. You don't have to literally go fly in a plane and see if you crash. You
can play it through in your mind, and it's just as real to your nervous system and to your body.

There are two approaches: If there's something you're afraid of, play it through meditatively. That can release those kinds of "phobic" fears. More of
the fears are emotional fears, however, and those you work with by facing them. Go into a meditation and face it. Experience the worst thing that can
possibly happen. "I'm afraid I'll lose my job." Fine. Go into a meditation and lose your job. Get fired in the worst possibly way. Play it through
and then make an alternative plan. "What will I do? I'll sell the house, the RV, go on vacation, and figure it out when I get back." Plan out your
approach. Then play it through the way you want it to be. It sounds so simple, and it works.

With Love & Peace

Lazaris

In Part II Lazaris continues with the "Bugaboo Emotions" -- anxiety, confusion,
worry and doubt -- and the tonics which are antidotes for them. Once they are released there is space which must be filled to prevent their returning,
and Lazaris explores what we need to put in their place to permanently achieve inner peace.

This article is a partial transcription of the recording entitled "The Magic of Receiving: A New Dimension of Success"

It is a joy to be with you and to work with you ... And once again, we are going to take a look, a more profound look at receiving. ... In your Darker
Moments, we know, there are times that you decide that receiving just does not work, or that you can't do it. Depending upon your particular penchant
for self- punishment, blame, or criticism, either you pile it on the function of receiving, or you pile it on yourself. One or the other of you is
a failure, that is for sure. In those darker moments ...But, indeed, in the Lighter Times (which are, in fact, the truer times), you absolutely know
that you have learned a tremendous amount about the ability, the function, and the wonder of receiving. And more than just learning about it, you have
done it. You do it, and you have been very beautifully conscious of receiving the bounty, the abundance, the cornucopia of success -- or at least parts
of it -- into your reality.

You know that receiving works, and that you work, too. In those Lighter Moments, in those Truer Times, you have very consciously received. More and more,
you are coming out of your own personal darkness and stepping into your very beautiful and personal Light. And in those Lighter, Truer Moments, you
are going to find you will receive more than you have allowed yourself to do before. More and more the opportunity to receive will be there. ...

But as much as you do allow and are conscious of your function of receiving, it just doesn't happen consistently enough. You can't trust it enough. You
do not feel confident enough to rely upon the phenomenon of receiving. You just can't be intimate with it yet. You cannot be close to it, tender with
it, vulnerable with it, and trusting of it to lean on it, to know it will be there when you need it to be, when you want it to be, when it has to be.
And beyond this factor of consistency, trust, and confidence, there is also the Magic of Receiving.

The Magic of Receiving offers a whole new dimension of achievement, a whole new dimension of success. Yet as wonderful as that sounds, the Magic is frightening.
Not terrifying, perhaps, but frightening. And it is frightening not because you cannot repeat it, for surely you can, but it is frightening because
it is so unfathomable ... it's so abstract and mysterious. Indeed its magic seems to stretch beyond the very limits of language. And therefore, you
deny yourself the very magic that could open doors and wide vistas of opportunity.

And as you have self-chosen a destiny as MapMaker, as Reality Creator, the next step out of darkness is to engage, to attract, to embrace the full body
of the Magic of Receiving. ...

At first glance, Achievement and the Magic of Receiving seem to be in some ways almost at opposite ends of some sort of continuum. One is so active, and
the other seems, by its nature, so passive. One seems to be at the source of causation; the other, at the end of allowing. One seems so dynamic, and
the other seems so receptive.

But they are, in fact, much more alike than they are different. For truly so, receiving seems very passive at times, but (overtly or subtly) it is tremendously
active. As well as being at the allowing end of the continuum, receiving is definitely at the causative end, too, for your willingness to receive can
be the very energy that causes the reality you are seeking. And, in fact, the very "doing" energy in the Nature of Achievement also becomes the "doing"
energy involved in the Magic of Receiving.

Receiving is an energy. It is not an insurance policy. It is not a guarantee of success.

Receiving is an energy to respect, to harness, to direct, to generate.

Receiving is a teeter-totter-like balance between disengaging the reluctance or refusal to receive and actively engaging and embracing the full body of
what you truly want to receive. Receiving is neither friend nor foe, but will function as one depending upon whether you are your own friend or your
own foe.

These clues are the same for Achievement as they are for Receiving -- and in these clues is tucked away the Magic of Receiving.

The First Clue

This first clue tells us that Receiving is an energy. Truly it is an energy that is alive, a vibrant and palpable energy. It exists not independently of
you, but can and is, at times, separate from you. It is an energy you can step into very consciously or step out of very consciously. It is also an
energy that you can step into and out of in what seems to be a less than conscious fashion. It has its boundary, its sphere of influence, its sphere
of impact.

The first key to the phenomenon of Receiving is that you already know how to do it. You already do receive -- and not just the good stuff! You see, you
do not need to learn how to receive. You need to learn the magic and the allowing, but you already know the function. You're doing it already.

Think for a moment about some constriction in your life, some failure, something that went wrong. Are you honestly going to tell us that you sat down and
programmed for that - - that you sat down and said, "OK, how can I go about creating getting fired from my job? How can I create financial disaster?
How can I possibly create an auto accident? How can I create an illness?" ... {laughter} ...

Did you go about trying to earn that despair? No, you didn't go about consciously creating those things in the sense of sitting down and making a decision
about them. And that's often, ironically, one of the criticisms people have of the concept of creating your own reality. "Well, I didn't do it consciously."
That's how it seems, because you create by causing, but you also create by allowing. And one of the many ways in which you allow is by receiving. When
this happens, such creations are a product of your beliefs and attitudes, or of limited thoughts and feelings. It is a process of letting the reality
show up as a function of receiving.

You already know how. You already know how. That's not the problem. The problem is directing it, respecting it, harnessing it, and guiding it. Just imagine
what you could do if you could harness it. Look at how "effectively" -- and we use that word in a somewhat sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek way -- how
effectively you can create messes in your reality ... {laughter} ... Just think about what you could do if you could use that dynamic of receiving
to bring about only the positive things that you desire. Look at how you receive! If you could just turn that in a positive direction, just imagine
what your reality could be.

The Second Clue

The second clue to understanding the magic is that receiving needs to be respected, harnessed, directed, and generated. If you don't respect the energy,
you will overestimate it or underestimate it. Either way, you will start to take it for granted. And once you start taking the energy for granted,
it becomes invisible. Think about that a moment: Whenever you take anything or anyone for granted, they begin to become invisible. You no longer see
them: You see what you assume or what you project -- what you take for granted. The same is true of energy. Once invisible, you are not as conscious
or as able to respond -- to be responsible -- in the way that you desire.

And you need to harness the energy, which means that you "own the energy" by owning your ability to use it as a tool to get from where you are to where
you want to be. If you don't harness this energy, you will attempt to contain it, to possess it. Owning the ability to use the energy and attempting
to contain the use of energy are two very different things. When you try to contain it, to make it "all mine and only mine" -- when you try to make
it an end, in and of itself, rather than a means toward a grander and more glorious end -- you try to possess it rather than own its use. You try to
control it rather than use it.

When you try to possess it, you become possessed by it. When you try to control it, you become controlled by it. And therefore, you are constantly searching
for how to receive, but you never let yourself do it. You constantly feel insecure that someone might take your capacity to receive, so you dare not
use it and show others that you have it.

If you don't direct the energy, then you will try to manipulate it. And when you try to manipulate receiving it tends to seem as though it evaporates or
vanishes.

If you don't generate it, then you try to dominate it. And when you try to dominate receiving, as opposed to generating it, you become enslaved, constantly
pursuing it but never finding it, never really knowing it.

The Third Clue

Thirdly, receiving is a balance between disengaging from the resistances to receiving and engaging and embracing the full body of what you want to receive.
Sometimes receiving is not so pleasant, and the key to it is to become conscious. Becoming conscious of the receiving that is already happening --
whether it's good or bad, whether you like it or not -- is the third part to understanding and reaching the magic.

The Fourth Clue

And the fourth part is to understand this: Behind everything you do, whether positive or negative, the one consistent thread is that you want to be loved.
That's what you're seeking behind everything you do. When you look at your life and you see the positives that you create -- the successes, the job
opportunities, the relationships, the friendships, the health, the meditations, the clarity -- what are you really after? Are you really after the
dollars in the bank? Are you really after the title after your name? Or isn't it that what you're really after is the love?

And so many keep that as an abstraction. But let that in: "I am after the love." Everything that you do that screws up, that becomes a problem, is your
skewed attempt, but an attempt nonetheless, to get love. There is not an action that is not an attempt to get love, or to secure it once you have it.
The most despicable things that are done in the world come down to wanting love. And the most beautiful things as well. That doesn't excuse certain
behaviors, but it does explain them.

The fourth key to the magic is to admit the love you seek and the attempts to secure that love once you find it.

When you can understand these components, then you can approach understanding the phenomenon. Then you approach understanding the Magic. You see, receiving
isn't just sitting there with your arms open, waiting. Receiving isn't refusing to take the steps because "I'm going to receive. I'm not going to program
and process. I'm going to receive." Receiving isn't avoiding what needs to be done. "The yard needs to be mowed. I think I'll receive cut grass." ...
{laughter} ... It's not about procrastinating or avoiding processing. It's not that sort of dull, passive energy. It can seem passive, certainly so,
but it is also very active, very dynamic, very alive, a very active and very conscious choice.

The Resistances

The resistances do not only keep you from receiving. They also keep you from understanding the very components that are the clues. The resistances don't
just manifest in the illusion. They are emotional states that manifest inside of you. ... The TRADITIONAL RESISTANCES are these ...

(1) You have been taught, conditioned (there is a difference between the two), manipulated, or threatened out of receiving.

Some of you have been very clearly taught. You were sat down as a child, and mother or father or "well-meaning" adult told you: "Now look. The only way
to get ahead in this world is to claw your way to the top. Just do it for yourself. You can't let anybody help, because then you're going to be owing
them." Often they were well-intentioned. They weren't deciding: "Let's see if we can't screw up this kid." But they did give you the message that life
is not a gift, that you've got to earn anything and everything that's in it. Receiving is out of the question.

Some of you were conditioned. The words were never spoken, but they showed you through their actions, their philosophy, and the way they viewed the world.
Others of you were manipulated. Others of you were out-and-out threatened: "Don't you do that!"

You were taught, conditioned, manipulated, or threatened into believing that to receive is weak, greedy, and selfish -- that it is just plain wrong.

(2) The Dark Shield and the Dark Law.

As a small child, and then again as an Adolescent, you developed this protective device to protect you from the pain, limiters, blockages, contracts, payoffs,
and scripts that were forced upon you. You developed a shield, and that shield we call the Dark Shield, because it's made up, first of all, of shame,
followed by the issues of deserving and guilt, and by mechanical, emotional, or physical additions. It is a Dark Shield of self-sabotage and self-punishment.

In a cosmic way, it is a very literal shield made up of these limited resources that were available to you at the time. And it did do its job. But it also
blocks the positive energy. And therefore, with Shield in place, you resist receiving. It blocks the pain, but it also blocks receiving. And until
that Shield is taken apart, it is difficult to receive, and it is almost impossible to do it consciously, consistently, with confidence and trust.

The Dark Law is that statement that brings order to the Dark Chaos. The Dark Chaos is the pain. The Dark Chaos is the ugliness. The Dark Chaos is the disappointment,
despair, anger, rage, loneliness, hopelessness, and the shame itself. And to deal with the Dark Chaos, you create a Dark Law that says: "I can never
be happy. I will never be successful. I will never find love. I will always try, but fall short. I have a Midas touch of death and destruction." Those
very ugly laws -- absolute, singular statements -- give order to the Dark Chaos of your life, but they also blind you to the Light Chaos, which what
receiving love is. The Magic of Receiving is abstract, unfathomable. It is mystical. It's a Light Chaos. And this Law that brings order to the Dark
Chaos blinds you to the Light Chaos that receiving is.

(3) The Ego's Fantasy and Delusion. The ego's fantasy and delusion of grandeur is better-than or less-than, the flip sides of a coin called arrogance.
"I want all the credit. If I'm going to create, I want to get all the credit. I don't want to have to share it with my Counselors, or my Higher Self,
or my Unseen Friends. I don't want to have to share it with my Soul, with God/Goddess/All That Is. If I get this job, by God, I want it to be what
I created all on my own." So receiving is a threat to the ego.

(4) Control. Another resistance is control itself -- the investment in the need to control, to manipulate, to be a martyr, to feign weakness with self-pity.
If you want these agendas and the desire for vindication that becomes part of them -- if you want them more than you want to receive -- you will make
a choice for them rather than a choice for receiving.

(5) Wanting To Earn It. There's nothing wrong with wanting to earn. There are a lot of wonderful things to earn in reality, certainly so. And you can also
do things and get rewarded. But receiving is also one of those ways to go about creating the reality you want. It adds to your potentials of what you
can do, because there are some things in life that you cannot earn, and you want those things, too. And the way those things come about is through
receiving. If you're hooked on earning and being rewarded, you will see receiving as a threat -- not unlike the ego that sees it as a threat. Also,
to earn and to be rewarded are more closely associated with a masculine energy. Receiving is a more feminine energy, and from the viewpoint of masculine
energy, the feminine energy is a threat.

(6) The sixth resistance is the anger, bitterness, and resentment that you hold around love -- and yet at the same time you want it so completely. The
fact of the matter is that the human nature is to love. While you're inside that set, that's sometimes difficult to see. But once you get outside the
set, then you realize: "Of course. The human nature is to love." You can't help it. You will reach for it and always try to move toward it. The problem
arises when you get terrified of it -because of the anger, the bitterness, the resentment, the humiliation, the rejection, the abandonment, and the
betrayal that have been so associated with it. On one hand you are running away from it as fast as you can, and on the other hand you're trying to
run toward it as fast as you can.

To avoid being torn apart, you end up substituting something in its place and calling it love. For example, you say love is suffering, and you prove your
love by suffering, and expect others to suffer to prove their love by suffering as well. That's what martyrhood is. To answer the dilemma of wanting
and not wanting love, all at the same moment, you redefine it. Therefore, love is suffering, or love is guilt. If you are so embittered and enraged,
yet at the same time you are wanting love, you're going to resist receiving it.

(7) Resistance to Gratitude. You don't want to feel grateful, because you have been taught, conditioned, threatened, or manipulated into seeing gratitude
as weakness. If you are grateful, it means that someone else did something better than you did, were nicer than you are, are more powerful than you
are. To feel grateful is to admit that you are weak and they are strong. That, you believe, means you're not good enough. Now, none of that is true,
but that is the belief system that makes it such that you don't want to be grateful. And therefore, you don't want to receive.

Many of you have worked with and truly have released these resistances, and yet there is still difficulty. The reception is not consistent and trustworthy
enough, and you are not confident enough of it. And we would suggest there are also what we'll call more poignant reasons.

The Poignant Resistances

(1) You are so afraid you won't get love -- or that if you do, you'll lose it -- that you just don't trust love. You don't think that you can find love
or that you can hold it. And to have it and to lose it would be so horrific, so painful, that you don't know if you could do it. Some of you have experienced
great loss -- a person who died, or a loss through misunderstanding or indiscretion. And you realize that a love was lost, perhaps because you didn't
respect it. And it hurt so badly that you feel you could not go through it again. Therefore, you don't want to receive. You do not want the Magic of
Receiving. "I'll get by. I'll go without." Behind every constriction: You want to be loved. Fear of the love and of securing it is the reason many
of you will not let yourself receive with a consistency.

(2) A second, less obvious reason is because you're clinging to the past -- to the child's projections, the adolescent's absolutes, the comparisons, the
competitions, the hidden agendas, the insecurities and fears, the failures and pain -- all of which make up this backdrop of the past. Against this
backdrop the concept of receiving is impossible or a fluke, because the child has eliminated receiving from its resources, and the adolescent answered
the chaos with the blacks and whites of reality. And there's no room in competition and comparison for receiving.

(3) And the third and final of the less obvious reasons is because of pain. Pain is different than hurt. Pain is a separation and a longing. Hurt can be
painful. Anger and fear can be very painful. But pain, in and of itself, is separate from them.

And pain separates you from yourself. It separates you from your very Soul. Not a complete severing, no. But it separates pieces of your Soul. In a sense,
pieces of your Soul get lost when the pain is too much to bear. It doesn't die -- the Soul is immortal -- but it becomes separate. Fragmented pieces
of Soul outline the path of pain.

Pain separates you. Pain causes fear. Pain causes stagnation and depletion. Even though receiving is a palpable, living energy, you don't have the energy
to step into it, to allow it, to receive it. Pain is that debilitating. That is why we call it a spiritual challenge to heal that pain, to reconnect
with those pieces of Soul, those fragments lost so long ago. As you can work with your pain, be it physical, emotional, mental or etheric, as you can
repair the damage of that pain, then you can open up to receiving.

For some, that pain is so intense that it does paralyze and exhaust you so completely that to open up to receiving seems out of reach. And sometimes the
pain is so intense you just can't muster enough of your own energy to step up to and into that very living, very palpable energy. And in your pain,
you become your own foe, and receiving then functions like one.

So even as you release the more traditional resistances -- as many of you have (you've done beautifully in that regard) -- still you find yourself so frustrated,
because you're still not receiving. Often it is these less obvious, more poignant resistances. The pain, the past, and the attempts to create and secure
love stand in the way of receiving.

As you can understand and disengage the resistances, then truly so, you can engage that very magic that can afford you a whole new dimension of success
and achievement ...

Techniques

The Magic of Receiving stretches beyond the words, but it is there, and it is in each of you. And you can use it and allow it to become a bigger, more
profoundly important and magical part of you. If you're not quite ready to receive yet, you can let it rest there. Then, when you're ready, it can
emerge, and you can use it as fully and completely as you like.

Now we want to give you some things that you can work with very concretely. Not that you have to take them all. Sometimes, as we've said, there are certain
steps that are important: Start here, do these. But with the Magic of Receiving, you can work in a number of different ways, picking and choosing,
working with what works for you.

Working with the Clues

The first step that we suggest is particularly for those of you who like to work consciously. This technique, we would suggest, is valuable if you like
that concreteness. The first technique is to take the "clues" of receiving and work with them for yourself.

Receiving is an energy -- a palpable, living energy -- that you can step into and that you can step out of. What does that mean to you? What does it mean
to you that it is an energy, that it is living, that it is palpable, that you can step into and out of it? Give it meaning. Give it value.

"It is an energy that I must respect." Now how can you do that? What does it mean for you to respect that energy? How do you show that respect, so that
you don't take it for granted, so it doesn't become invisible? And how do you harness it? What does that mean? What's possession look like? What would
that look like and feel like for you? Own what that means to direct that energy. What does it mean to generate that energy? How does that work for
you? What does it mean that what you're really after is the love. Behind everything -- the most positive or the most negative, the most outlandish
and the most obvious -- it's all about love. What meaning and value does that have specifically for you?

These components can have meaning, value, and they can matter. They can matter in your life.

And so you work with them, you play with them, you meditate on them, you talk to those intimates in your life about it. You get together with those friends
you meet with in your spiritual circles, and you work with these ideas. Talk about what it means, and look for the limited beliefs or the errant thoughts
that come with it so you can flesh it out and let it grow and expand so that it has meaning and value in your reality.

Clear the Resistances

The second thing, which is important perhaps for all of you in your own way to do, is to clear the resistances, both the mundane ones and the more poignant
ones.

Really work with it. Sit down and say, "OK, look. My resistance is what I was taught. But I know that now. I'm not that child anymore. That authority,
for whatever reason, taught me the wrong thing. Now I need to sit with that and make a decision that I can get off it, for to do otherwise is to manipulate."
Now if you've just discovered it, that's a different matter. But if you are one who knows all there is to know about what your mother or father taught
you, you can get off it now. You do not have to spend weeks working through it. You can get off it. To do otherwise is to let it become part of your
manipulative self. You can walk away from it.

Similarly with the others: The ego's holdout for better-than or less-than. The arrogance that you get all the credit. Why? Why is that still so important.

You clear out those mundane or traditional resistances. But then look to what's deeper than that. Is it the pain? Is it clinging to the past? Or is it
that tug-of-war between: "I'm so desperately wanting the love and so terrified that I won't find it, or that once I do, it'll be taken away." What
can you do about that? You do not have to sit on that mushroom for the rest of your life. You don't have to stay there. You can change that. You can
own it, really see it, and change it. You can let go of that past. You do not have to be a prisoner of it. You can rise to the spiritual challenge
and heal the pain.

Create Your Own Ritual

The third technique -- and some of you will have a delightful time working with it -- is to create your own ritual. You may sit down with your Higher Self
-- or just let yourself be imaginative and let your own intuition be your guide -- to create your own ritual of receiving. You may want to use the
very meditation that's on this tape -- where you cross the four different terrains -- which represent the experience of the Four Elements. You may
want to adapt that, change it slightly, or use your own intuition to make that into a very personal ritual that you can do with a certain regularity.
Some of you who worked with us with The Seven Rituals of Success [a Lazaris workshop], and one of those rituals was that of receiving, which involved
various magic papers and bundles and working with the particular chakra centers. You may want to integrate or incorporate some of those techniques.

Or, you do some sort of ritual where you open the chakra centers and let them be flooded with an energy of receiving, by whatever ritualistic way you want
to do this. Ritual means a dance that you do, a repeated pattern that gives your Unconscious and your Subconscious a message, that lets your Higher
Self and your physical self know: "Oh, this is what they do when they want to receive love." And in that sense, therefore, you will.

Giving Without Duty & Obligation

The fourth technique we suggest will be wonderful for some of you. For others of you it's not going to be something you want to do, and that's fine. This
one is the most delicate and intricate of techniques.

And it is this: That you ever so gently begin to give without any duty or obligation, without any particular cause or effect in mind, without any expectation
of getting something back. What you're going to do is just give someone something. It doesn't have to be financial. It can be a note, a letter, a phone
call. It can be very intangible, in that particular regard. But you're going to give to them not because it's their birthday, or Christmas, or any
particular holiday, or as a thank-you gift for something they did for you. There is not going to be any duty or obligation involved in this. There's
not going to be cause and effect. No reason like, "You've really earned this," or, "This is my way of saying thank you." No. Just because you want
to give. No cause. No effect. No duty. No obligation.

Nor do you expect that because of this, you are going to receive, you see? "I'm going to give to you, and I'm going to give a whole bunch. You, you, you,
and you! And then I'll receive a whole bunch!"

Well, in fact, that'll happen, but that's not what you want to do it for. Because then it becomes earning, or it becomes reward. What you want to do is
create the resonance. Create the resonance. Because what happens here is that now there's a person who is receiving without earning, without deserving,
with no reward attached. And what you're doing is creating a resonance whereby receiving is possible. All resonance creation begins with the possible.

"They're receiving."

"Well, they're doing it because I'm the one giving it to them!" ... {laughter} ...

But they're doing it, aren't they? They're creating the reality of receiving for no particular reason at all. And that means that if you could give it
to them, you can give it to you.

Does that mean you go out and buy a card that says I love you very much and mail it to yourself? ... {laughter} ... No. But you can just open to let yourself,
your Higher Self, give to you without duty, without obligation, without any particular cause or effect in mind, without any expectation that you have
got to give back.

What's the phrase? "If there's one white crow, then one cannot say all crows are black." If you can create one other person who is receiving then you have
created a resonance where receiving is possible. Receiving becomes, therefore, a resonance that you can generate.

Now as we say, it's delicate, because it's easy to slip into the place: "Now, when am I going to receive? When's it my turn?" Then the technique becomes
something other than what it was intended to be. So work with this one only if it makes sense to you -- only if it is exciting to you.

The Disk of Receiving

The fifth technique that we suggest is to work very specifically with that disk which you receive in the meditation. You do not necessarily have to work
in that meditation, but imagine the disk in one of your higher chakra centers -- the third would be the lowest one to use. There you find this disk
of energy, and it's a color, a specific color. The color doesn't have to match the chakra center it's in, and you can use a full range of colors. It
may be a most wonderful fuchsia. It may be a most incredible lime green.

When you want to receive love, when you are tending to get a little edgy or a little shaky on your ability to actually receive, you can close your eyes
and allow yourself to imagine that disk. Perhaps it is no bigger than a quarter; perhaps it's the size of a hockey puck. Let it come to the surface
of the chakra in which it is enveloped; then let it project out and expand. Or toss it into the air and let it tumble and spin. Suspended there, it
then grows to become this big disk.

Then from its center, it begins to open. Then you can step into it, and allow yourself to be totally enveloped in the most wonderful and beautiful awareness
that you truly are loved. Really let yourself be filled. Forgive yourself for not having received it yet, and just be filled, just be filled, just
be filled. And then step out, close it, put the disk back into the chakra where it belongs.

If, in your excitement you forget to put it back, it will find its way home. ... {laughter} ... "Oh, my gosh! I lost the disk!" ... {laughter} ... "Wouldn't
that be just like me! Absolutely. Everybody else goes around tucking it away neatly. I leave it out there!" ... {laughter} ... "Who knows who's got
it now! The neighborhood dog probably stole it." ... {laughter} ... "Now they're getting fed better and taken care of better than anybody. ... They
took my disk." ... {laughter} ...

So it will find its way home, but the idea is to close it and put it back. It's part of the respect, part of the honoring, of that particular energy. The
technique of the disk is incredibly powerful, beautifully powerful. The more you do it, the better it gets.

Receiving the Ability to Receive

A sixth technique that we recommend is one that seems so obvious once we say it, and that is to receive receiving.

Maybe what you want to do is to say to your Higher Self, "Look, I'm having one devil of a time receiving. So the first thing I want to receive is the ability
to receive more elegantly. I know how to do it. I don't know exactly how I know, but I do know how to do it. But I need to do it more elegantly, and
that I don't know, so I want to receive that."

Work with your Higher Self, perhaps going into a meditation and just saying, "Here I am. Do what you have to do. You don't have to tell me. I don't need
to approve. Just do what you have to do so that I can receive." Let yourself receive the receiving from your Higher Self, from your Counsellors, from
the very energy of receiving itself -- so very palpable and alive as it is.

Give it Value, Let it Matter

What is important here as the last of the techniques we recommend is this: When you do generate something by receiving, give it value, give it meaning,
let it matter.

So often what happens here is someone may say to you: "Do you realize what you just did? Do you realize what you just created? My goodness, look at what
you let yourself receive!" And you say: "Yeah, that's pretty neat." And then you go on to something else.

Wait a minute! Give it some time. Let it sink in. You get so embarrassed, in that particular sense, so spotlighted and visible that you don't want to be
that vulnerable. But you need to stop and realize: "Look what I did. Look what we did." Additionally, take that thing that you generated through receiving
and amplify it, express it, let yourself absorb it, let yourself digest it. Let it nurture you. Let it have meaning.

How did you do that? Ask yourself: What state of mind were you in? Not that you want to replicate that every time, but you want to be alert to it, aware
of it. What did you do here? What was the difference that you let this one in and not that one? Expand upon it so that it has meaning, so that it has
value, so that it matters, so that you start developing that image in yourself: "I'm somebody who can elegantly receive, and I'm doing it more and
more. That's who I am. That's who I am becoming."

So let it in when you're reminded, "Hey, look what you received. Look at that. You didn't earn that. You didn't do that by some trickery. You received
that."

"Wow! Yeah, I did. I received it." Let it in. Let it become a part of you. Because as you do that, then you create the space, you create the resonance
where indeed you will receive more and more and more and more.

And ultimately, then, as we've said so many times:

Life is a gift from God/Goddess/ All That Is. And yours is to learn to receive it. Receiving is, in its way, the highest form of achievement and creating.
And that is what you are here to do in the thousands of lifetimes you have. The gift is given. Yours is to receive it. And as you can work the magic,
allow the magic, receive the magic, so then the reception of what life is, and of the glorious gifts that it can be, becomes ... unending.